Sportsmanship more important

I feel sorry for the eight badminton players who were disqualified from the London Olympic Games for not giving off their best to win, because athletes get a chance to win an Olympic medal only once in four years or maybe once a lifetime. But that is the cost the eight doubles players have to pay for what they did - violated the Olympic spirit by intentionally losing their final group matches after they had already qualified for the knockout round.

Some people say they wanted to lose to face weaker opponents in the knockout round. Whatever the reason, their action (or inaction) is a violation of all the rules of sportsmanship and an affront to the spectators who paid to watch them play.

Others say the new rules were to blame for the scandal. If you can win a medal by losing rather than winning a match, what would you do? Maybe the new group format leaves much to be desired and has loopholes which players can take advantage of to save energy for the knockout round or avoid the rivals they don't want to meet.